North CarolinaCottage Food Laws

Yes, through the NCDA&CS Home Processor Program. It has no fee and no revenue cap, but it does require a kitchen inspection before you sell shelf-stable foods like baked goods, candies, and jams. Temperature-controlled foods are excluded.

North Carolina's Home Processor path is an inspection rather than a paid permit, and it covers low-risk, shelf-stable foods — breads, cookies, cakes, candies, jams, dry mixes. Acidified foods like pickles and BBQ sauce may need extra recipe review. Meat, dairy, cream-filled, and other temperature-controlled items are not allowed.

The Home Processor Program covers shelf-stable items, not hot prepared meals. To cook meals to order you would use a licensed or commissary kitchen. You can deliver your inspected home-processed foods yourself and take online orders.

Yes — this is the strictest pet policy in the country. The Home Processor Program bars all animals from the home at all times during participation, even overnight when no food is being made, because pets are treated as "pests" under 21 CFR 117 good-manufacturing rules.

Acidified foods are allowed, but they add two steps: a required acidified-foods course (about $400) and pH testing at roughly $150 per product. Base shelf-stable foods like breads, cookies, and jams don't carry those extra costs — the Home Processor Program itself has no fee.

North Carolina requires inspection required before selling cottage food. The cited state sources do not list a revenue cap. North Carolina allows online orders, in-state shipping, seller delivery for cottage food sellers.

Yes. North Carolina requires inspection required before selling cottage food. Check the official state source before selling because local zoning, food safety training, or label rules may still apply.

North Carolina's cottage food rules mainly cover foods that do not need time or temperature control for safety. Common no-go categories include tcs, meat, poultry, fish, shellfish.